Wednesday 27 January 2016

100 Happiness Credits in the Positivity Bank



10 things I've learnt from #10toshinedaily10

  1. Spending time on a creative project every day makes me focused on my own unique ways of experiencing happiness. 
  2. I love having a very simple daily goal that feels just the right balance of achievable and challenging.
  3. Thinking about what is good in my life right now, and in the past, makes me extremely grateful that I am so lucky.
  4. Experimenting with different ways to show my DAILY10 is increasing my knowledge and skills.
  5. Looking out for each days theme makes me pay attention and become more mindful of my day. 
  6. I feel very  privileged to have so much in my life to enjoy.And I've got 100 images if I need reminding.
  7. I genuinely believe that social media can be used to add to wellbeing; reviewing my #10TOSHINEDAILY10 photos gives me a feelgood glow.
  8. I can't  'make' others join in! But I love it when they do.It's fantastic to see other people's happiness.
  9. When I do inspire anyone to take a baby step to acting in a way to increase their happiness I dance around the kitchen in joyful  abandon.
  10. WE (Weef & I) have enjoyed this so much that we are going to continue to collect our daily 10 taking it in turns to put an image up on 10TOSHINEDAILY10 The intention is that this will become a space where we can create a dialogue around our ideas on the art of positive living, a kind of free-association of images in response to our day-to-day happiness levels.



Sunday 17 January 2016

10 to SHINE 10 Day Challenge



The middle of January can sometimes feel a bit of a let down, Christmas excitement has faded away.....the spring seems along way off. With that in mind I have decided it's the perfect time for a happiness making challenge. Simply 10 days of 10 reasons to be cheerful.

10 reasons to do the 10toshine 10 day challenge

1. Research suggests that focus our minds on the good things in our life increases our well- being.
2. The challenge will encourage you to be mindful of what makes you feel happy
3. Anything that is done with consistency for 10 days forms new neural pathways and become a habit (actually I made up the 10 day bit of this but it might!!!)
4. You will acquire insight into what makes you positive and how to add more of it to every day.
5. It may encourage others to share their ideas of happiness.
6. You will increase your creativity as you come up with innovative ways to respond to the challenge.
7. It will encourage you to spend 10 minutes every day on yourself.
8. Your brain is built to learn new things and loves a challenge.
9. Feeling good for 10 minutes will release oxytocin and make you feel even better than good.
10. It’s a simple way to be happy, that’s free, can be shared, can be done anywhere with whatever you have to hand. Alone or with friends. 

AND at the end of the 10 day challenge you will have 100 different ways that your life is AMAZING, that you are FABULOUS, that what you do every day is ASTONISHING, that life is WONDERFUL. That this is a ZIP-A-DE-DO-DAH place to be, at this time, in this place, right now. 

We will all have days when life doesn’t go according to plan, dark cloudy moments when it’s tough to remember the sun will shine again. If you have a whole 100 reasons in your resilience bank that you can dip into, it will help you to maintain a sense that this too will pass. 

Bonus Reason to do the 10toshine 10 day challenge

If you do participate you will also get the added bonus of making me really happy and endlessly gratefully. I may thank you in the form of cake, dance, or thank you posts on your favourite social media platform. 


So how do you do the 10toSHINE 10 Day Challenge?

It’s very simple starting on Monday 18th January I’m asking you to find 10 things each day that make you happy and to post them on any social media platform with the hashtag #10toshineDaily10

You could put them up 10 times in the day, or post once each day. You can write lists or draw a cartoon. You could take 10 photos during the course of the day or a collage of 10 images. You could record 10 words that make you smile, or bake 10 cupcakes iced with reasons to be cheerful.

Nothing should take more than 10 minutes to do, although if you want to take longer you can of course – it’s just that you may then find you use the excuse of not having enough time!

There are no right ways to do this but because I know that sometimes it is easier if you can see alternative ways to approach a task I'm going to offer 10 suggestions:

1. A list of 10 people you love:
I found this hard because I wanted to start to sort out the different ways and kinds of love I have for people…..I love lots and lots of my family and friends, I love people who would probably only consider themselves an acquaintance and would be embarrassed if I said I loved them! So I just put down the first 10 names that I thought of when I was the word LOVE.
2. 10 photos of things you own that make you happy:
I choose my 10 favourite coloured pens because I love drawing and certain colours make me smile.
3. A mind map of the 10 things that you appreciate most about yourself:
Celebrate all your good bits
4. Choose 10 things you see every day which you are grateful to have in your life:
5. A collage of the 10 images on your phone that make you grin from ear to ear:
All those silly moments you collect but haven’t necessarily shared because you may not be looking your best!
6. The 10 songs that make you smile whenever you think of them.
I’d love to have the skills to edit my selection together in a kind of happy compilation and upload them but that is beyond me.
7. Find a way to represent 10 positive emotions:
8. Take 1 photo on the hour for 10 hours: 
I’m going to do this for my first challenge on Monday. Whatever I’m doing between 8am and 5pm I shall stop and find the thing in my view which makes me feel good.
9. Make a collection of 10 jokes:
Weef’s suggestion this one, I would struggle to write up 10 jokes but look out for his!
10. Photograph your 10 favourite tee-shirts: 
I have 10 favourite strippy tees and they make me very happy especially if I get dressed before Weef as the rule in our house is whoever wears the stripes is the winner for the day. We take great pleasure in our childlike rituals.

Please have a go at joining me in the 10toshine 10 day challenge, it’s a bit silly,very light hearted and a good way to get to the end of the month. We often set ourselves goals which deprive us of things, this challenge is about adding more to our life, increasing the things which give us pleasure not denying ourselves. 

I would love to be able to collect all the images and lists that have been hash-tagged and collate a front page for the new project I’m working on so please do share and let’s see how high we can raise our happiness for the next 10 days.

Be shiny happy people and show me the results. xxx